Nail Yakupov is the goods, or so says the Consensus Top 100. The largest gap between any two players in the top 20 is between #1 Yakupov and #2 Forsberg - a ringing endorsement of Yakupov's incredible abilities. I reconstructed this list for 2010 and 2011 using the final rankings of the draft guides, watchers and gurus over the last two years to compare to this year's list and found that not only is the gap between #1 and #2 much larger this year than in the previous two, the gap between Yakupov and Forsberg is the largest gap between any two back-to-back players ranked in the top ten from 2010-2012.

He has the ability to push the tempo up the ice and keep defenders on their heels, but he's probably even more dangerous at a standstill with high-end agility, first step acceleration, and a real slippery aspect to his game. He has such a powerful stride that he can take a handful of strides and already have travelled half the distance of the ice. Yakupov is the kind of player who consistently keeps his feet moving and has a very desirable motor to his game that shines through on a regular basis either when he's jetting through open ice or when he's engaging along the physical areas.

What was once a two-horse race between Yakupov and Mikhail Grigorenko is no longer. Grigorenko lost the #2 slot to Filip Forsberg last month and lost the #3 slot to Alex Galchenyuk this time around. Craig Button dropped Grigorenko from 14 to 20 in his May rankings (which seems harsh, but ISS has Galchenyuk at 14) and ISS dropped Grigorenko to #4 behind Ryan Murray.

Teuvo Teräväinen jumped 25 spots last month to #9 and jumped to #7 this month. He's probably not done. Given the defensive depth in this draft, the value of the top-end forwards is going to be very high. Teräväinen could very well go anywhere between #4 and #6.

Brendan Gaunce, the highest-ranked Canadian forward lost four spots this month. It will be quite strange to see the first Canadian forward selected at #20, if the draft breaks that way.

Hamphus Lindholm was the biggest gainer in the top 50, jumping 18 spots up to #26. The Swedish defenseman has come from #85 all the way up to the first round in four months. Another Swedish defenseman, Ludvig Bystrom, broke into the first round at #30, up six spots since April, but up 47 spots since November.

This could be a very good draft for the Czech Republic. After a couple of down years, three Czechs rank in the top 30 and 9 rank in the top 200.

I think the news breaking that the KHL is going to make a strong push for Grigorenko could really hurt his draft stock. Maybe it's my own personal opinion, not necessarily based in any fact, but Grigorenko always seemed the most likely to bolt of the trio of Russians.

I was convinced that Grigorenko wouldn't get by Montreal at 3 but who really knows now.

I'm disappointed that Teravainen continued to rise so much that he is now well out of the Sabres reach (12th pick) but would be more than happy with Faksa if he's there.

Sean Couturier was questioned about his work ethic, he doesn't look to grotesque, yet. He was diagnosed with mono during the year. Mikail Grigorenko, pegged as lacking in work ethic. What was he diagnosed with at the end of the year? Mononucleosis.... If he falls because of the item in question, some team is going to be laughing when they take him. He came over to Canada to play hockey, I think he'll play in the NHL. Radulov is Radulov, he doesn't speak for all Russian's, just like Patrick Kane doesn't represent all Americans, and Sean Avery doesn't represent all Canadian's. If Grigorenko says he is playing in the NHL next year, I would believe him.

I would imagine that they would not hesitate to use regular cap space for Grigorenko. Makes me very nervous. I understand the argument that he came over here prior to being drafted which shows his desire to make himself marketable to NHL teams. However, as far as I know the KHL doesn't have any sort of rookie max contract limits like the NHL does, so they could make him a very hefty offer which I would have to assume would be very difficult to turn down.

I think the news breaking that the KHL is going to make a strong push for Grigorenko could really hurt his draft stock. Maybe it's my own personal opinion, not necessarily based in any fact, but Grigorenko always seemed the most likely to bolt of the trio of Russians.

I was convinced that Grigorenko wouldn't get by Montreal at 3 but who really knows now.

I'm disappointed that Teravainen continued to rise so much that he is now well out of the Sabres reach (12th pick) but would be more than happy with Faksa if he's there.

I don't even think the Russian factor has anything to do with Grigorenko falling. It's his weak play during the 7 games series against Halifax that made him drop. He didn't create anything offensively & was shying away from the dirty areas all series. Though, we learnt that he was later diagnosed with a mononucleous after the series. So the question becomes: to what extent was it the cause of his poor play?

Looking over this list it seems like there is one identifiable first line player (Yakupov), three or four potential first line/pairing players (Murray, Reinhart, Forsberg, Galchenyuk) and then a collection of prospects who may become complementary talent in later years.

Last season there was some talk amongst the media and bloggers who follow scouting reports that this year would be an exceptionally deep draft, based on the performance of a few players (Frk, Sissons, Ebert, Yakupov, Galchenyuk, Athanasiou, and others).

Early this season this began to change as those players failed to pick up where they had left off in the previous season or their colleagues began to catch up, thereby diluting the effect of these early standouts.

By March I was reading some opinions that this draft, outside of the early five to ten prospects, was one of the weakest drafts since 2007.

Drafts and influxes of talent go in natural cycles, so this shouldn't be a surprise.

However, I am wondering if, for a team that finds itself drafting between 10th and 17th, it might not be most advantageous to trade down or to switch picks for next year with another team (obviously only two or three teams could ultimately do this, or nobody would want to trade up).

I have discussed the idea of the Flames trading down with ColinS on another Nations forum. If Feaster were able to trade down from 14th overall and add a late second or early third round pick, this might be the year to do it.

trading down in the 1st to get a LATE 2nd rounder? Might as well just sell off a B asset to get an early 2nd rounder.

and how does trading down in a "shallow" draft make any kind of sense for a team that needs to get the most talented players it can, rather than a large number of not-as-talented ones who have an exponentially worse chance of making the NHL? Yup. And people wonder why the Flames' prospect pool (and lack of players in that age group everyone's always talking about) has been practically non-existent, what with Sutter trading down in every single draft. Am I the only one who sees the pattern?